


Fry says...

by Keenir



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers in Asgard, Darcy Lewis thinks of movies, Gen, Jane Foster has plans, Monty Python reference, Past Loki/Sif, Past Relationship(s), Post-Ragarok, Shrek reference, Ásgarðr | Asgard (realm)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:16:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2029899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ragnarok has come and gone.  And Thor, remembering better days, plays matchmaker...as does Jane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "We keep moving, we keep the light burning."

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hihiyas (hiyas)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiyas/gifts).



> Thank you, Hihiyas, for the bunny, and the needed kick.

It was late afternoon in Asgard, with evening far far off, and night even further still - as far as the heat of the day was behind them already.

"It was good to have you at my side once more," Sif said. _The last time I was this close to him, I held a blade to his throat...and he smiled at me.  Now he stands, facing me, his form draped in cloak and robe, his face shielded by a mask, his hands by gloves._

"I gave you my word, Lady Sif, that I would serve under your command."

_And not Thor's.  I remember._ "Your skill has not tarnished since that vow was made.  For which all the Realms are glad."

_Just the realms?_ Jane wondered, watching the two of them - _Sif said she was going to say goodbye, but that was before she and Loki stood there looking at each other for not sure how long, and then this.  I suppose it could've been more awkward.  They could've been saying 'sea bass.'_

"And yet," Loki said, "clearly not polished enough for Ragnarok.  We lost too much."

"Yes.  We did," Sif agreed.

Jane thought, _O-kay, appearantly I wasn't imagining things the last time I was in Asgard.  This place_ **is** _a soap opera._

"Beta Ray Bill will be missed," Loki said.

After a moment, Sif nodded.  "He was a great friend."

"The finest anyone could hope to have."

"On that, we agree."

"I would speak with the mortal for a while," Loki said.

Sif looked at Loki, eyes barely narrowed, but message received.

"I wish to offer my advice towards her research," Loki said.

"Okay," Jane said.

"I will be at the lower bridge, Jane," Sif said.

"The one by the pub?"

"I will see you there, then," Sif said, and backed away slowly, not taking her eyes off Loki.

"What did you want to tell me?" Jane asked, curious what Asgard's own prodigal son would say to her about astronomy.

"Look over there," he said, pointing off to one side, his gloved hands indicating the Bifrost firing off into space towards another world.

"I see it," Jane said.

"And that is what you want to understand, according to the rumors I have heard," Loki said.

"I'd like to, sure."  _I don't think I'd get the chance to look at its insides even while Thor's king._

"No doubt you think you could build your own when you understood how it operates."

"I'd like to think I could," Jane said.  "But I know better.  I'd understand the physics of it, even if the technology is still beyond me."  _I know a Soul Forge's nature, and understand enough of the quantum physics involved, but if Dr. Eir ever asks me to assist with repairs to it... sorry._

"Then you're already far wiser than Stark," Loki said.

"That's not difficult," Jane said, giving him a bit of a smile, and wondering if he was smiling behind that mask.  "We have a similar situation on Earth already."

"You do?" Loki asked.

"We do.  We've understood how atoms work, even deep inside of stars.  But the closest we've come to making a star of our own, is nuclear weapons."  _There was a rumor that Dr. Otto Octavius had hit on a way to make a star...but then he disappeared._   "Sometimes, even if you know a thing is possible, and you understand it better than anyone, you can't always reach it." _That just makes it all the more delicious to achieve it, when it becomes possible._

Loki turned and looked at where Sif was disappearing in a crowd bridgewards.  "As wise as Forseti, Dr. Foster; you are as wise as that ancient hero."

_Anyone else would ask 'wow, did you hurt yourself?' and even I'm tempted._   "Thank you, Loki."  And, not blind to where he had been looking, added, "She likes you," Jane said when she was reasonably certain even far-off Asgardian ears couldn't pick up the sound of her voice.

Loki looked at her like Jane had just called him Malekith.  "Have you been to the pub already?  Emptied their barrels?" he asked.

"Ha.  Ha.  No, I just know what that look means," Jane said.  "It means she loves you, but you're an idiot."

"Wrong tense," Loki said.

"What?  Oh, right, you _were_ an idiot before that whole repeatedly-risking-your-life-during-Ragnarok.  The rest is still true."

"Was," Loki corrected.  "Generations ago, by your reckoning."

"Riight, gotcha.  But then you tried to kill Thor, and she couldn't trust you anymore," Jane said.

_"That_ was well within your mortal lifetime."

"O-kay.  And what happened to break the two of you up?  Because I doubt it happened because you got pregnant."

Loki was utterly silent for more than a minute before saying to Jane that, "In hindsight, it is best that that never happened."

"Why?" Jane asked.  "I'm still not one of your favorite people, and you're not even in my top fifty.  But I think you'd be a great dad.  Or mom.  How does Asgardian reproduction work, anyway?"

"There is no point in my answering that, as the question is moot."

"Asgardians don't have sex?  But..."  _Breasts and beards and kisses and kisses like oh my god yes god._

Loki chuckled.  "Better you ask an Asgardian."

"I am," Jane said.  "I mean, I've seen some weird things during this Ragnarok...like that Contingency Cannon.  But you're still -"

"And there sits your error."

"Tense?" Jane asked.

"I am perfectly calm."

_English, he wasn't using Allspeech._   "Good one.  But what's the matter?  I won't insult you by asking 'who am I going to tell?'."

"And instead?" Loki asked.

"I promise not to tell anyone what you tell me - provided it's the answer to what I asked you," Jane said. _Looks like a childhood of Jack Tales and Grimm Fables pays off._

"It is a matter of trust," Loki said.

"Aand you don't trust me.  I get it."

" _I_ _am _ answering you, Dr. Jane Foster, mortal of Midgard, skald of stars."

Jane blinked.

Loki continued:  "Four hundred years ago, Sif's trust was breached by one of the very few she trusted and held closer than she did me.  Sif handled it by holding fast to her loyalty.  I was not as resolute, and wavered.  That was the first crack between us."

"The First Cause," Jane said.

"Yes."

"You were torn between loyalty and trust?  That's a tough one."

"Loyalty and a desire to punish for the breaking of trust," Loki said.  He tilted his head, hearing a small, tiinny cracking.  _Again_.  "You should go.  While she will not hold you accountable, Sif does not like tardiness."

"Got it.  Any messages you want me to pass along?" Jane asked.  _Too soon?_

"She looks more unblemished than one would expect from a victor in as many battles of Ragnarok as one heard she partook of," Loki said, knowing Jane couldn't see the smile on his face.  _Sif, Bill, and I used to taunt one another good-naturedly with comments of that line.  Not everything changed._

"Will do.  No idea if she'll hit you for that, but, eh," Jane said.  "By the way, one question.  Who's Beta Ray Bill?  I mean besides clearly the best friend anyone could ever have."

"Ask your lover," Loki said.  "Twas he who saw Bill last."  _Alongside Coulson, at that._

* * *

* * *

"Well, as we're all being honest here," Tony Stark said, giving the stink eye to the card he'd just picked up, and wondering if Volstagg was making these rules up as he went along - _granted not always a bad thing_ \- "I'll put this out there: I've made a hell of a lot of deals over the years, and I still don't consider Loki a friend. But he's a braver man than me."

"What?" Natasha asked, never having thought she'd hear Stark admit that about anybody - _particularly not Loki._

"I'll second that," Steve said.

"Hey, you guys weren't there," Tony said. "You didn't see what he agreed to. Didn't see that dragon, either."

"Dragons aren't real."

"Says the superman playing cards in a floating city. Trust me, there's at least one dragon."

"And the only one to survive Ragnarok," Thor said, grinning as he set down his cards in a winning pattern. "You and Loki had an audience with Nidhogg, the skull-crusher, the soul-slurper, the only brother of the Valkyries, and chewer of Ymir's flesh."

"A broad swath could lay claim to that last epithet, good prince Thor," Volstagg noted.

"True," Thor agreed. _Including my own ancestors._

"You said he made a deal," Natasha said to Tony as she set down her cards, a marked improvement over what she and Stark had ended the round with last time. "What was the deal he made?"

"Not a clue," Tony said. "But he looked a little deflated when it was time for us to leave the boneyard and come back to the fight." _Still can't say 'back to Ragnarok', no matter how much its true._

"Indeed," Thor agreed. "Loki has been even less of himself since his mission to Nidhogg, than he had been following his death and ressurection."

"Nothing we can do about that. So, who deals the cards this time?"

"I've got a better question," Natasha said. "What happened to Mjolnir, Thor? I haven't seen it lately." _And normally you don't go five feet from it._

The others nodded agreement - they hadn't seen the Hammer, either.

"It is a personal matter, which does not hold the promise of resolution," Thor said. "But perhaps you are wrong, friend Stark, and at least my brother can be offered resolution." Before anyone could volunteer, Thor said, "And I do not speak in the sense of killing him once more."

"Speaking of, where's Hawkeye?" Tony asked.

Kate Bishop coughed.

"My bad. I mean the Hawkeye who'd be happy to take Loki apart."

* * *

* * *

In the throne room of Asgard, from the royal throne, “I am offering you a job,” Heimdall said again when Clint Barton asked him to.

Frigga stood to one side.  _I stood here among the observers and advisors before I became Odin's wife.  I stood here when Loki was brought to Asgard in chains.  I stand here as an observer and adviser once more._

Clint asked, “Uh, why? You’re the king of this place. Why hire an Avenger to do what they’d do free of charge?”

“Perhaps you could answer him better than I might, sister,” Heimdall said to Sif, who stood beside Barton.

_I should be on the bridge, awaiting Jane, and finding out what Loki has filled her head with. But one does not disobey one’s king without repercussion._ “I would fight at your command, my king,” Sif said. “But I would not die for you.”

“And she is not atypical,” Heimdall said to Barton. “With few exceptions, I have lived my life in service to the late Odin, King of Asgard,” Heimdall said. “That degree of focus filled all the hours of my life with duty stationing me within Asgard’s Observatory. Some resented me, while others wished me dead. You stand beside one of the latter, Barton.”

Clint looked at Sif, and then back to Heimdall. “Really? You want me to come work for you…because I don’t hate you?”

“On the contrary. I ask you to enter my employ because I have seen your work. Asgard needs someone like you.”

“A circus reject with a wisecrack for every occasion?” Clint asked. “Or does archery not exist in your divine medieval empire?”

“Archery is employed more by Vanir and Elves,” Sif said when Heimdall said nothing.

“Great, like I’m not called Legolas enough. Look, your kingness, I’m sure you saw good photos or video of what my successful jobs look like. Thing is, that’s not – what’s so funny?” Clint asked them when everyone in the room was smiling.

“Thor did not speak to you of my power,” Heimdall remarked.

“Nothing personal, I’m sure. Thor doesn’t talk much about the old country to anybody.” _Except for bits and pieces during Ragnarok, which just made it weird…er_.

“I am aware. You see, I used the wrong word. I have not seen your work – I have observed and been witness to your work as you did it.”

“No,” Clint said.

“Yeah,” Sif said, supremely annoyed at Heimdall.

“You are welcome to take your time in considering my offer, Barton,” Heimdall said. “In the meantime, I ask a favor of you. As I am now king, any of my possessions will open any cell in the prisons.” And he tossed his dagger to Clint, who caught it, spinning around once from the momentum and weight of it. “I would ask that you open the cell which holds Lorelei daughter of Nerthus, and bring Lorelei here before me.”

“And how will I know who she is?” Clint asked, noticing Sif’s reaction.

“Lorelei at present has a device around her throat which prohibits her from speaking. She alone in the prisons will not speak as you pass.”

Once Hawkeye had gone to do that favor, and seeing that Sif was glancing over at Frigga, Heimdall said, "She always knew."

"Of you and Lorelei," Sif repeated.

_Not of I and Lorelei, no.  But I know enough to know Lorelei must be released first._ "You disapprove, sister?"

Sif bristled. "I would disapprove of her with anyone," Sif said.

"Even me?"

"Yes, even you, my king." She sighed. "But if she is your wish, I shall obey her commands so long as they do not endanger Asgard."

"Good," Heimdall said.

Sif remained where she stood.

"Normally, you are quick to leave my company," Heimdall noted.

"My king speaks the truth," Sif said.

"You may leave, if that is your wish. Though be aware that Thor is looking for you."

Sif crossed her arm over her chest, dipped respectfully in place, and turned and left the throne room. Thor all but ran into her before she could leave the palace. "My...prince?" Sif asked, noting how out of breath he seemed.

"Sif," Thor said, all smiles, as ever. "It is well that I found you. I have a favor to ask of you."

"What do you ask of me?" Sif asked.

"A favor," Thor repeated.

Sif waited.

Thor opened his mouth, and shut it. _Lo, she would be instantly wary and inclined to not participate if I mention Loki so soon,_ Thor knew. _But a shared friend..._ "I have been thinking of late, of those we nearly lost, and of those now lost to us."

"It is a heavy burden," Sif agreed. "Always it is painful to lose a comrade-in-arms. Made worse by how Niflheim being now sealed, I suspect no amount of laboring could steal even one person from its lands any longer."

"That is why I would ask that you take command of the design of a monument honoring our friend Beta Ray Bill. You knew him best, after all."

"I accept the duty. And as you are insisting upon it being a favor, what do you seek to do in return?"

_Neither of us are used to this, clearly. Or at least to me doing this._ "That is for you to decide, at any time over the coming centuries," Thor said. "In the meanwhile, I was thinking the design could be done at the inlet which faces Asgard's western sea...tomorrow morning?"

Sif nodded. "I will be there."

"Thank you."

Sif knew Thor well enough to read him:  "Go, return to your friends, Thor."  _What are you now?  Loki and yourself are no longer princes, and you are no longer king yourself._ "They have need of you."


	2. Entropy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"How much do you weigh now, Johns?"_  
>  \--Caroline Fry; Pitch Black.

**A little later that night:**

"What?" Jane asked as she and Sif walked from the bridge to... _where're we going?  Am I about to get one of those floating hoverchains that Thor had to ask me to return to the kids playing with it?_   "Sorry, I -"

"Ease, Dr. Foster," Sif said.

"Okay.  I'm going to guess that something's bothering you, and it's probably not the same thing that's bugging Loki.  Unless it is."  _See, I can too be subtle._

"I would not be aware of Loki's thoughts," Sif said.  "I am full of a question for you, but - it shirts the bounds of politeness."

Jane blinked.  _Shirt and skirt were the same thing linguistically in the Viking Age...a translation bug in the Allspeech?_ "That's never been a problem for me - ask anyone."

"You voyaged with Thor and Stark when they went to the High Throne of the Realm Muspelheimr."

Jane nodded.  "Yeah."  _And later, when I'd finally stopped sweating, I went with Pepper to Aegir's Hall._ "Big volcano," Jane said.  

"I am aware."

"Oh."

"My mother often took me with her as she walked the Realms," Sif said.  "Was it to Surt and Sutur that Thor relinquished his claim to the throne?"

_**That's** what skirts politeness?_   "No."  _No, their condition was Thor set aside Mjolnir.  And he asked me and Tony to not say anything._

They walked a bit further, and _so much for...I suppose that was skirting politeness, but it wasn't what was bugging her,_ Jane felt.  "What's wrong?  You can tell me."

Sif looked at her, caution lining her eyes.

"I promise not to tell anyone without your say-so," Jane said.  "Cross my heart and have to hear Thor do opera," and smiled when Sif smiled at the mental image.  _Or memory_.

"Very well," Sif said, and sat down on a wooden bench.  Jane sat beside her.  "Before he went to Muspelheimr with you, Thor went to Midgard and then went to Jotunheimr.  Do you know what he would be doing there?"

"He said HYDRA was dead and destroyed and gone - he used a few more words, granted - and that he'd found a half-brother.  And that the Avengers weren't the only ones who would have to leave Earth by the time Ragnarok came to an end.  Thor told me that he brought friends and friends of friends to Jotunheim...he didn't give any names," Jane said.

Sif sighed, lowering her head some.  "I expected more, but in so doing, I underestimated Thor's protective streak.  You cannot tell what you do not know."

"Think he'll tell you?  I think so," Jane said.

"Most all of Thor's Midgardian friends are in Asgard presently," Sif said.  "That leaves precious few canidates he could take to the Realm of the Frost Giants."  _And what did he say, that his enemies would open their doors to his friends? And why would he bring a Jotuness into Asgard?_

They sat there a while longer, and as they were rising to continue walking, Sif turned to Jane and said, "Thor has a second half brother?" Jane nodded. "I was a little confused, too. He said this was an older brother born to his mom," _not to Frigga, who raised him and Loki._

"Giant snake by the name of Jormungand," Jane said.

"I imagine he would be an interesting opponent on the sparring grounds," Sif said.  "Ah, here we are," as they neared the open window of a tavern Jane hadn't noticed before.

Seeing what children and adults were walking away from the window with, Jane asked, "Is that...?"

"Ice cream, as Thor explained it to the people," Sif said.  "He was quite taken with it, in his time on your world, and it has become quite popular in Asgard."

"Sugar and milk are always popular."

"What relevance are they?" Sif asked.

_Why would you...?_ "What's in the ice cream?" as the two of them arrived at the window.

The proprietoress answered Jane: "Seal fat, mostly.  With dragon blood.  And placenta."

"Dragon placenta?" Jane asked.

"Don't be silly.  Goat."

_I **really** need to have a chat with Thor about his taste buds._   "I'm not really...I don't have an appetite right now, sorry, Sif.  You can have mine," Jane said.

Sif looked to Jane as if there was going to be trouble coming...or at least a building falling around Sif's ears.

"What's wrong?" Jane asked.

"Thor brought this to Asgard so you would always have part of your home with you," Sif said.  "That you do not like it..."

_Oh for the love of..._   "Okay, make you a deal - I'll eat the ice cream, if you answer my questions."  _Methinks I've been hanging out with Darcy too much._

"I would do that regardless, Jane Foster, but very well."

Jane licked it, thankful it was a single-scoop establishment they'd gone to, and once that first bit of - _afraid to ask which was the seal and which was the dragon, flavor-wise -_ had gone down her throat, "You and Loki...?"

Sif looked at Jane as if she was thinking the human had done all that - faked disgust and distress, among other things - simply to wedge her foot in a door Sif had been more than comfortable never again touching.  "You are familiar with...I do not know your word for it."

"Can you describe it?" Jane asked, focusing on her voice and words, rather than the flavor on her tongue.

"My mother would say that a man's entrails can be ripped from his chest and burned.  Once burned, his entrails can be of use to his soul, but not to his body."

Jane blinked.

"My aunt would have said that an egg may be broken," Sif added.  "But no cooked egg can be returned to its shell."

"Oh, you can't unbreak an egg," Jane said.  "We call that entropy."

Sif nodded.  "That is my relationship with Loki."

"If you can't repair the relationship you once had, could you start over again?"

"Thor has mentioned to us that he bears a strong visual resemblance to a man you were once involved with.  Did you consider returning to that man, before or after Thor's time in your life?"

_Come on, Foster, you had to know somebody would've mentioned that by now.  And you're not done with this ice cream, so you can still win this._   "I could say I caught him cheating, but that wasn't the worst thing he did," Jane said.

"While not as striking as his brother Thor's crime, I do not regard Loki's then-action as something I can be involved with.  I can accept the fact that his arm fell off."  _I'd bled a century before; Thor and Loki were supposed to bleed together, them being the same age...and his arm fell off._

Thought Jane, _Okay, forget soap opera.  You guys are a Monty Python skit._

Sif continued: "You have accepted that you and your...eks...will not resume or retry your relationship.  Please accept the same for myself and Loki.  I have accepted it."

"And Loki?"

"If he has not accepted it, he knows better than to mention it," she jested.  _Seas Below, woman, the last time I saw someone eat that slowly, Volstagg and Fandral were trying not to insult my attempts at cooking._   "Loki has changed, I will admit to that, Jane," Sif said.  "But it is too late - we have both continued onwards with our lives, and now he may find someone better."

"Better?  Better than you?" Jane asked.

"Loki deserves better than I, yes," Sif agreed.

"O-kay, we'll set aside for now everything Loki did to my planet, and the fact that he was dead, and...  Come on, really?"

"Yes, truly," Sif said.  "He deserves not to be with one who is mired and bound in scandalousness."

"This is - what? - because you're a woman warrior?"

Sif snorted.  "No.  It is because all my students are imprisoned.  It is because I raised arms against my pupil.  It is because I am of sworn loyalty to one who has cast himself from Asgard."

"Thor."

"Yes."

Jane sighed, eyeing the now-empty cone.

Sif patted Jane's back.  "Come, and I will answer more if you wish, while you eat what remains."

"What is it?" Jane asked.  _Wallaby ears and narwhal tickles and everything_ nice?

"Sugar."

"And...?"

"Only sugar," Sif said.

* * *

* * *

**The Next Morning:**

As Thor slowly opened his eyes, awakening to the new day, he reached out one hand...and Mjolnir was not there.

He sagged back against the bed as he remembered why he no longer had it. Jane wrapped her arms around him, knowing what he was thinking of.

_I kept Surt and Sutur from rebuilding the armies of Muspel. It had been too long and no longer did they wish to fight alongside Asgardians...so all I could do was keep them from fighting against us. And I did._

Mjolnir. Forged in the heart of a dying star.

The Dwerrow, masters of the Dwarves, had the capability to work in such an enviroment.

But it was the flamelords, servants of Sutur, who had crafted the master weapon. And the flamelords had continued to improve their craftmanship long after completion of mighty Mjolnir...all the way up to the day when either they went extinct or entered hibernation.. _.depending upon whose tale you hold as credible._

And it was the flamelords who would have arisen at Sutur's command, to wage final war against the other Realms.

_Thus it was a simple calculation,_ Thor reflected.  _To lay down my most treasured weapon...with the agreement that, on the day that I call upon Mjolnir or raise it up, is the day when the flamelords will swarm over the Realms_.  That prospect had him reaching for the bucket, emptying what was left of the ice cream - brought to him by Jane last night - upwards from his stomach.

And he knew one further thing: _That was a milder treatment than would endure, if Sif learned that her mortal friends were among the ones I took to Jotunheimr.  I could stomach what my fellow Avengers would do upon their learning that Philip Coulson yet lives.  But Sif... I in honestly do not know if it would be worse if she pummels me or if she glares and does not lay a finger upon me._   _I do not even know if Loki would find my discomfort amusing._ He sighed.  _Perhaps I could hint to Loki that he could recover from Jotunheimr Sif's favorite mortals...surely that would award him entry to her presence, even if not to the good graces and more they once had_.

"Morning," Jane said, sliding out of bed.  "You got a lot to do today too?" already thinking of asking the Royal Astronomer - _Sigyn, as it turns out_ \- to let her see some of the starcharts Asgard had made over the epochs.  _Even just looking at the charts will tell me a lot.  And, granted, I don't doubt she'd be aware of that_.

* * *

* * *

**Meanwhiles:**

Tony didn't remember when the Queen had arrived - _thought for sure I'd gotten up and headed back to the suite Thor'd given me and Pepper...guess I'd had enough to drink to know better than to risk Pepper smelling my breath._   "Say that again?" Tony asked, positive his brain was still sleeping, given what he'd thought he had just heard Frigga say.  _Based on how Rogers is squinting, he doesn't believe it either.  That or we finally found something to beat his metabolisming._

"That doesn't make any sense, your Majesty," Steve said.

_Or not._

"Surely Thor is weaker without Mjolnir," Steve said.

Frigga smiled maternally at the two of them.  "That is a common misconception," she said.  "But that is not the purpose of Mjolnir.  Surt and Sutur were more abiding by ancient agreements when they demanded it."

"A giant super-powered hammer...was a punishment?" Tony summarized.

"A hobbling," Frigga corrected.  "A milder one than my son requested.  And far milder than my daughter requested."

"Daughter?" Tony asked.

"Not surprised Loki asked for a harsh one," Steve said.

"Loki was adventuring with his friends at the time."

"Friends?" Tony asked.

"It was Thor who requested to be penalized."

"No offense, but I've never heard of Thor having a sister."

Frigga made a face, and Tony and Steve each backed away a bit.  Calmer, Frigga said, "I had one, and continue to have one...of sorts.  Thor is why she is unspoken of in the Realms."

"What'd he do?" Tony asked.

"He used his power," Frigga said, and stood.  "I have taken too much of your time.  My thanks, gentle men, and good day," and left.

"Thor abused his power?" Steve mused.

"Thor has a sister?" Tony asked.

* * *

* * *

**A Little Later That Morning:**

"I think it just moved," Clint said, looking at his ice cream.

"You poked it," Peter said.

"That would require _touching_ it."

"Yeah."

"Ugh."

"You still poked it," Peter Parker said.

"Remind me again why I defected," Jess asked soto voice.

"I made a good argument for it," Peter said.

"And you'd only been working for HYDRA for two days," Clint added.

"I had only been _awake_ two days, also," Jess said.  "Now eat your ice cream."

"No," Clint said.

"You poked it, you eat it," Peter said.

"Who says I poked it?"

"Ice cream doesn't move on its own."

"This one did."

Kate groaned.  _Exactly which of us is supposed to be watching over the others?  King Heimdall appointed Loki to do it.  Captain Rogers asked me and Clint to do it.  And I have no clue why Miss Blue Dress is hanging out with us._

"Why did you take what you refuse to eat?" Loki asked.

"You can leave any time you like," Jessica Drew told him.

"Don't worry about the first step," Clint said, and not just because he figured Loki had some sort of a way to survive stepping off the roof of a skyscraper like where they all were right now.

"Grow up.  All of you," Tarantula told them.  _That last world we were on, it was cold as all hell, but at least nobody was squabbling like hungry pigeons._

"This your first look at humans?" Jess asked Angrboda, who looked to Jess like she was mentally taking notes.

"Yes.  Though my grandparents saw your kind when humans were still fully arboreal," Angrboda said.

"That means living only in trees," Clint said to Peter and Jess.

"You want to wear your ice cream?" Jess asked, arcing a little electricity between her fingers.  "And those weren't humans."

"Granted, the name's a bit more expansive than you might like, but it's what everyone uses," Angrboda said.

"Not the Asgardians," Clint said.

"Must be a recent change."

"Why'd you come here?" Tarantula asked her, more curious and wanting to change the topic, than berating her for the comments.

"Your king decreed the isolation of my Realm was at an end," Angrboda said.  "I seized the opportunity."

"This place isn't too warm for you?" Jess asked.

"I am comfortable."

"Thor is not king," Loki said.

"Much as I hate to agree with him," Clint said, "he's right."

"He was king when he made the decree," Angrboda insisted.

Loki made a noise that said _possibly, possibly not so much_.  "Now if you will not obey your betters, listen to your own kind: eat your ice cream."

Jess snorted.  "I _am_ better," and considered throwing a bolt of lightning from her hand at Loki.  Settled for a large **zap** fired at him.

"It moved," Clint reiterated.  "I don't eat food that's still moving."  _Not sure which is creepier - the ice cream here, or the fact Loki didn't get out of the way or shield himself from that zapping - just crumpled a little, then went back to standing like he had been._

"Moving, or traveling under its own power?" Tarantula asked.

Kate considered _maybe I should just take them all down to street level, and see if they're less_ them _down there.  I swear, the Battle Of The Spiders was less irritating...and it didn't have that stupid name aff_ _ixed to it either_.

* * *

* * *

**That Afternoon:**

"We traveled and adventured, yes," Thor said.  "Our number were always up for a grand time on or near the battlefield."  _Even Sigyn was an accomplished fighter.  Her and Fandral would argue all the while over the proper poetic form for praise vs mockery_.

"Number?" Tony asked.

"Your regiment?" Steve asked.

"Near to that," Thor said.  "Myself, Loki, Sif, Amora, Sigyn, Beta Ray Bill.  We comprised the core - Fandral and Hogun joined later, becoming treasured members of our family, you would say."

"And the big guy?"  Tony asked.  _The other big guy.  The other other big guy.  The other - say, where's Banner?_

Volstagg said, "I travel with the boys and the girls, Stark.  I have their trust and they have mine; I am not their right hands.  I serve their hands."

"You do what they say, in other words," Steve said.  "Same here, well, back when I was young."

Many of the Asgardians and Vanir present who heard that, chuckled.

"The one place I can't make an age joke," Tony muttered.

"My heart bleeds," Steve said.

"Mine did that as well," Fandral said.  "It required medication for a time.  It is healed now."  _And to be certain it was healed, my doctor sent me on an adventure with the princes - my first of many adventures with them._

"That's always good," Steve said.

"So..." Tony said. "About Sif..."

_You seriously need to work on your segueways...then again, I suppose you used to just throw money and the conversation changed._

"What of her?" Thor asked.

"She's pretty, am I right or am I right?"

"She has been lauded as quite the attractive one," Thor agreed.  _Back when our close number had been judged, Amora's lack of anger over having lost - and to Sif - surprised us all._ "Why do you ask?"

"Were you and her ever... you know. Involved? Affianced?"

"You - How - That is revolting!"

"Did I miss something? She's not, like, your half-sister or something, is she?"

"She is not."

"Then I don't see the problem, big guy," Tony said.

"Just because you used to sleep with anyone who was still breathing, Stark," Steve said, "doesn't mean you have to hold him to that standard."

Thor said, "Though not by blood, Sif is bound to me by oath and service. For me to engage.. to engage in...in relations with Sif, would be not dissimilar from you doing likewise with your Jarvis."

"So you've thought about it," Tony said.

Steve made a noise that may've been him throwing up in his mouth.

"You're just jealous that, in your day, one of Jarvis' CPUs would've taken up the entire Stark Tower."

Thor said, "I am too base for Sif."

"Base?" Steve asked.

"You're a prince!" Tony said. "Back on Earth, that alone can keep you from ever having to sleep by yourself. Take it from this little prince."

"That is why I am base, Stark," Thor said.

"You're pretty noble and good-natured and smart," Steve said. "I'm sure Dr. Foster can think of a bunch more."

Thor's neck turned a bit red. "Of that I have no doubt. But I am of the fourth generation of Asgardian royalty since my race was created by Buri, the first King of Asgard."

"O-kay... And? So? Therefore?" Tony asked.

"And Sif can count over a hundred generations between herself and Buri."

"English, please?" Tony said.

Steve frowned, and pointed at Thor, hoping by god that he was wrong: "You're saying Sif is too evolved for you?"

"That is true," Thor said. "But it is a minor detail when placed beside more pressing reasons why I have never felt attracted to her."

"You only get turned on by humans?" Tony guessed.

"You think of Siggrid," Thor said. "No, a far larger reason is that Sif has sworn her loyalty to Asgard."

"And you're Asgard," Steve said. "Or you would've been, as heir presumptive. Right?"

"As well as her promising her sword and her shield to me," Thor said. _That we were all jocular and jesting that evening, makes no difference - she regards it as binding, and if I were to treat that as not reason to honor her choice, I would have cast more than aspersions against my trust of her_.  "There are many more suitable than myself."

"More suitable than a king?" Tony asked.

"I am king no longer, nor will be again," Thor said.

"Women here don't like ex-kings?"

Every pair of eyes turned to face him.

"What?" Tony asked.

"How many do you think we have had?" Volstagg asked.

"So the novelty factor should be astronomical."

"Jane is astronomy sufficient for me," Thor said.

Tony facepalmed.

Steve chuckled.

"All I desire," Thor said, "is for Sif to achieve the happiness she once possessed with my brother."

"You have another brother?" Tony asked.

"Loki, whom you have met," and Thor got a thoughtful look on his face. "Perhaps that is what I shall do. Yes, I shall repair more fully the damage that lays between them."

"That a good idea?" Tony asked.

"It is perhaps my best idea."

"Uhm, no, not thinking so, nope."


	3. Motivations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Do you want to shock me with the truth now?"_  
>  \--Caroline Fry; Pitch Black.  
> 

**MEANWHILE THAT SAME AFTERNOON:**

"No, really, why are you here?" Darcy asked.

"I fell asleep when I was a little kid," Jess said, "and when I woke up, one of the two groups of Illuminati recruited me.  One airsickness fight later, and I'm being marched off to another frozen place."

"Another?" Peter asked.  "I thought that was all of our first visit to Jotunheim."

"I'd been stored at a facility in Antarctica," Jess said.

"So why Asgard?" Darcy asked.  "I'm not knocking the warmth here.  Just wondering."

Jess shrugged, and said, "Reasons."

"What about you?" Tarantula asked.

Darcy asked, "Me?  I'm here with my friends.  You?"

"Thor wasn't exactly saying people like us would be welcome to stay behind on Earth."

Peter nodded.  "I'd thought Thor was one of the good guys."

"He is!" Darcy said.  "He's one of the best guys, if not better than that."

"Don't get me wrong - I fought alongside him and SHIELD against the Goblin and HYDRA."

Jess coughed.

"And her."

"It was fun to watch," Tarantula said.

Darcy said, "I bet.  Hmm..."

"What?  What is it?"

"I'm thinking...Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Tarantula, and...  Someone's missing," Darcy said.

"If she says 'Black Widow', can I be not held responsible for, say, five seconds?" Clint asked Kate, just loud enough for Darcy to hear.

"Only if your quiver is six seconds away," Kate said.

"Speaking of, what's your story?" Darcy asked Clint.  "How'd you get up here?"

"Elevator," Kate said.

"I meant Asgard, not this roof."

"Avengers membership," Peter said, pointing at the Hawkeyes.

"Cool," Darcy said.  "Kinda thought you came here for a shot at offing Loki."

"Nope," Clint said.

"Wait, you _don't_ wanna kill Loki?"

 _That wasn't what I said 'nope' to._ "If I killed everyone who tried to kill me, SHIELD and the Avengers would only have three members:  Banner, Rogers, and Thor...who I almost took down anyway."

"And the mind control?" Jess asked.

 _Clearly, briefing-wise, HYDRA was as thorough as SHIELD, at least with her._    "Not the first time for me, not even the worst time."

"Huh," Darcy and Peter said.

"It's never fun," Clint said.  "But there are always degrees of crappiness in everything."

"Speaking of," Kate said, "I think we should talk to Thor.  I'm thinking about getting another puppy."

Darcy asked, "Are pets allowed in your building?  Because me and Jane are being roomed with Sif right now, and I get the feeling she's allergic to dogs.  Which is weird, given her thing with Loki."

"Thing?" Peter and Jess and Kate asked.  Clint looked like he was considering putting his fingers in his ears and everyone else's ears.

"You don't know?" Darcy asked, an evil glint in her eyes.  "Let me tell you guys..."

* * *

**Meanwhiles...**

**On the coast of Asgard in the Realm of Asgardr:**

"And what of you, Loki?" Sif asked.  "No doubt you can walk to Sminsgard and bring back totemics galore of Bill."  _If they have any that are not of the three of us, in tribute of our restoring their protective ecology.  Perhaps the greatest battle I have partaken of, and no weapons were used, not even hands._

"I doubt I can any longer, Sif," Loki said.  "Much did I give up and give over for Ragnarok."

 _Even your foes, Thor's friends, speak highly of your doing so._ "Bill would be proud of you.  We all are."

 _We?  I dare not hope the plural is you and I; there would be no point to it._ "Bill would have beaten me to it."

"Not mutually exclusive," Sif said.  "Have you any thoughts on who should do the inscriptions commemorating Bill's existence?"

"I would suggest Gudrun and Fandral," Loki said.

 _Not even a mention or a tease ribbing my own shoddy talent in this field?_ "Sadly my own carving skills are not equal to the task," Sif offered.

Loki shrugged.

"Yours may be, now," Sif said.  "That is, I assume you carved your own mask."

"I did," Loki said.  "Though my skills remain subpar to the level we both agree befits Beta Ray Bill's memorial."

 _If I argue that, it would cast poorly upon my memory of Bill,_ Sif thought.   "More worrying than that, is that there are none to inherit from him now."

"There is," Loki said.

Sif nearly crushed a model tree in one hand.  "What?"

"I believe Thor mentioned that, in his dying moments, Bill mentioned a wife and son."

"And your brother gave no details?" Sif asked.

"While Thor did not look perturbed at the time, he appeared to be unsettled; I thusly opted to not inquire further until he was settled."

Sif rolled her eyes.   "On the matter of being unsettled... A question does occur to me, Loki, and I would welcome an answer.  How did you go from Svartalfheim's dry wastes, to being spat up by Asgard's sea?"

 _I remember dying on that volcanic ground.  Or near enough to dying as to make no functional difference.  But awoke not in one of Hela's domains, not in Nidhogg's buffet.  I awoke in a chamber, bubble in ice, in Midgardr but not Midgard - a world so nearby even the humans have named it.  What awoke on that world, they spoke of 'clever Odin' and 'well devised' and returned me to Asgard._ "I fell in among a generous sort.  They healed my wounds and restored my energies.  And then sent me home."   _My arrival woke them up.  Disir._

"It is good that you returned to Asgard," Sif said.

Loki didn't dignify that with a sniff, a snort, or even a rolling of his eyes behind his mask.  "If any missed me, it no doubt was in the perfunctory way of court politics and manners."

"Doubt.  Doubt, doubt, doubt," Sif said.

Loki recalled that as well as she did - _an old game we played with Bill, repeating 'doubt' to someone who had said 'no doubt.'  That it means Sif disbelieves my statement, no longer matters.  She would have no interest in me_.  "I think we should include a frieze of the adventure we shared with Bill on on that Alfheim isle."

"No.  I was not myself.  Moreover, Bill featured very little in the resolution of that episode."

"You were only slightly sick," Loki said.  "And while Bill was not idle,  should not his memorial have a depiction of his heroine being heroic for his sake?"

"And what would your memorial have upon it?" Sif asked, thinking that a cheap shot as soon as it slipped past her lips.

Loki was silent for a long moment, before he said, "I trust you would put the proper inscriptions and images upon it.  And I have no question that Bill would be of like mind.  Good day to you, Lady Sif."

"Loki, that's not -" Sif started to say, but he was already gone.  "Maddening as ever, just in a different way."  _Again.  Different from during your imprisonment, which  differed from your reign, which differed from any moments in our shared youth._ "Back to work." _Just as well._

* * *

**Meanwhiles...**

**In The Center of The Royal Gardens, Gladsheim Palace, Asgard, Asgardr:**

"Thank you for agreeing to come," Frigga said, pouring a cup of boiling water for her guest.

"Few wished to speak with us," said one of the Disir who had been in that ice chamber.  "Our Valkyrie sisters tell us that remained unchanged during our long incarceration and even now.   Why turn down a rarity?" as she took the cup and sipped from it.  "Quality water, with a hint of iron.  My compliments."

"I do what I can," Frigga said.  She was dressed simply in a sheathed dress which a human would call a toga.  The Disir wore the same as Frigga.

"Also, our compliments for your son's approach so close to death on our behalf."

 _I call her 'Disir' as it is unlikely I will ever speak with any others, even over the course of my lifespan; the same principle applies to the Valkyries for the few who have met one - I know three, and only for that reason do I know three names._ "That was the main reason you came, I suspect," Frigga said.  "To compliment Odin for his raising a Jotunn child as his own, knowing the terms and conditions of the thing he had told you he would do for you."  _It was not the first reason Odin took Loki from Jotunheim, nor the most pressing...but it was **a** reason, it was **a** cause._

"I understand the Allfather's health is not well of late," the Disir said.  "Thus I give the praise to you."

"Oh?"

"Privately, Odin never struck us as one who would be good at raising children."

"He had his good days," Frigga said.  "And, that done, what else brings you here?"

Disir smiled a smile which was more dragon-like than human-like.  "Good.  You know of our ways."

"The archaics were the main element of my studies in my youth," Frigga said.  _The diverse sisters of Nidhogg, Valkyries and Disir; Hela; and all the other rare entities which fit into none of the classes of life._   "I ask that you answer my question."

"Mjolnir must be dealt with," was Disir's answer.

"Thor has returned it to Surt and Sutur, from whom his grandfather was awarded it.  The matter is closed."

"Muspelheimr will not raise the Hammer until the closing day of Ragnarok and never after either."

"Ragnarok is ended," Frigga said, though visions had haunted her of late, that it was not entirely so.

"Then you see our problem," Disir said.

"I see no problem."

Taking a longer sip of the boiling water, she then said to Frigga, "Mjolnir was built to be used.  It must be used."

"And if it is not?"

"We will take it from Muspelheim, and demonstrate upon Asgard what the Hammer is capable of.   Do not expect the Valkyries to be your succor - they are our sisters."

"If that is all?" Frigga said.

"It is," setting the cup down.  "I thank you for the tea and conversation," and she slipped away.

 _I will speak with Heimdall about this,_ Frigga planned, _but I doubt he will wish to even potentially take up arms against Nidhogg's kin.  There are seven beings in the universe whom Heimdall fears the wrath of: Odin.  Myself.  She who was nearly Heimdall's bride.  Nidhogg.  If the other three still exist, Heimdall has not said anything._

* * *

**Roughly an hour after that...**

**On the coast on the other side of the city of Asgard:**

_Placid waters that never fully cease their squirming little currents_ , Angrboda thought as she looked at the waters Loki was staring out at.  The seaside breeze made her dress tickle her legs.  _I come out here to jog on the warm grounds that comprise Asgard, and lo, behold, what do I find - Prince Loki himself._

She stopped a little ways from him.  _A Jotunn soldier could lie down and nap in the space between myself and Loki.  Or two civilian Jotunns could._ "Loki Odinson," she said.

He said nothing, and kept where he was.

She came closer.  "I would appreciate a word," Angrboda said. 

"No," Loki said.  "Now take your word and go."

"I would speak with you, jotun-slay-jotun."

"What did you call me?" Loki demanded, turning on a proverbial dime, the hushed voice not concealing his threat.

Angrboda let him get in her face: it made confirmation immediate to her senses.  The mask was irrelevant.  "All of my Realm knows that you were in Thor's invading party.  Now I see that there was an omission - that you are one of us."

In silence, Loki touched his mask.  "A lie."

"We recognize our own kind.  It takes powerful magic to conceal it from jotunsense."

Despite having read of that in Asgard's library, Loki said, "And what (manner of) sense is that?"  _Odin's magic kept them from seeing me as one of them..._

"Do not be fool stupid," was her answer.

On a hunch,  "You see the lines," Loki said, barely a question.

Angrboda looked at him like it was the dumbest question she'd ever heard, which perhaps it was.  Holding up her hand, she asked him, "These lines?  Or these lines?" and swung a punch at him.

Loki saw Angrboda's hand and arm - and saw traceries: lines arcing forwards from there to where her hand would be.  Loki used that to grab her fist and use her momentum to swing her around.   "That," Loki said.

"A strange one, you are," Angrboda remarked, and sent a command to all her muscles that forced Loki to let go and back away.  "When you released me, it was from my overwhelming your sense, working the same way a flare overwhelms s eyes looking at it.  When you dodged my fist, I had focused and prepared to hit you."

"I'm seeing intent?" Loki asked.

"In most things, yes.  Some Asgardians, it works, some it barely does.  But mostly, the lines are where everything is and where it was," _and I almost wonder if it would have been more fun to instruct those few humans about the Jotunn sense they have picked up.  Nah, let Skadi worry about them; she needs a hobby._

"Everything?" Loki asked, skeptical.

"Everything," Angrboda confirmed.

 _That answers some things.  And raises more._ "Leave," Loki told her.

"I am here on invitation, on royal declaration."

 _Was Thor still a prince or a king when he opened Jotunheimr?_ "You misunderstand, then: leave me alone."

Angrboda dipped her head.  "Very well."

"And speak of this to none."

She rolled her eyes.  "Why would I blabber about an internal matter, to Asgardians or anything else?" and when he didn't answer, she resumed her jogging.

* * *

**Meanwhiles:**

Steve Rogers was crossing one of the open fields which peppered the surface of Asgard, when a stone flew past him.  His reflexes had his shield out and ready for use before that rock hit the ground, and before the next stone came at him.

Feeling that another was about to be thrown at him, Steve raised his shield - and felt something strike his shield.

...and heard nothing fall to the ground or make a pained noise.  Steve lowered his heavier shield, and saw nobody in front of him.

A cough, and he looked down...at the young woman hunched over in a ball (or near enough) on the business end of his shield.  She jumped up and off his shield, knocking him to the ground; one foot of hers quickly clinging to the same side of his shield as he had a handle on, so he couldn't use it against her.

She had one hand on his shoulder, one on his non-shield arm, and her unpreoccupied leg was resting on the ground beside him.  "Captain Steve Rogers," she said.

"Agent Drew, I presume," Rogers said.   _Or I'm underestimating how many people have that pattern on their suits._

"Jessica Drew.  Yes," she said.  "Not an agent anymore."

Thinking to disarm them both, Steve tried flinging his shield away - _her feet are_ ** _really_** _cling_ _y,_ he found.  But that discovery also gave him the cover he needed: to flick them over so they lay on their sides.  _Not really wanting to pin her down under me.  Not before I get to know her and find there are feelings between us, which is a lot of possible dates away from here and now.  "_ What're you doing?" he asked her.

"You know why I came here?  Do you want to know why I came all the way out here to Asgard, Captain?" Jess asked.

"Not a clue," Steve said.  "Sorry."

"I needed to meet you.  For all that I hadn't been awake that long before Thor and the others dropped the sky on us, I heard a lot about you.  Read reports about you, pieced together from various sources."

"Well, we've met now.  Does that help any?" Steve asked.

"Not much, yet anyway," Jess said.  "I needed this meeting, so I could figure out what to do with the rest of my life."

"Whatever you want to do.  Cliche, I know, but it's true."

"It's just that easy?"

"Nothing worthwhile is ever easy," Steve said.

"Easy for you to say.  You got everything," Jess said.

"No, not really.  Not ever."

Jess snorted.  "Your metal-armed friend is in Jotunheimr.   One of Hela's gifts to Aegir was the elder Agent Carter."

"What??" Steve asked.  _Pepper Potts was in Aegir's domain, said there were people there from Hela to win him over to Hela's side._..

"I know, she's around my age; I really shouldn't talk like that."

"You're lying."  _For one thing, I refuse to believe Peggy's dead already._

"Why would I lie?" Jess asked.  "I was placed into - pick a word, hibernation, estivation, diapause - in the nineteen-thirties, a decade before you yourself slipped between the pages of time."

"So I was wrong, there is someone out there like me," Steve said, remembering his words to Natasha.  "Shared life experience, and all that."

Sorely tempted to snort again, Jess said, "You had a life, Captain Rogers.  You got to grow up before you took your turn as a lab rat.  I lost half my childhood and everything else until I woke up far less than a year ago."

"You don't want to compare childhoods - you'll lose," Steve said.  _Not by much, I'll grant you that._

* * *

**Meanwhiles...**

**At The Tavern:**

"What is your problem?" Rocket wanted to know as he led the way into the tavern.

"No problem - for the eleventy-fifth time," Quill said.

"Uh-huh.  Says a guy who insisted on checking every tree in the woods.  Just because you like sleeping on rocks, don't mean I do."

"I was looking for a -"

"Say that 'ra' word again, go on, see what happens this time," Rocket dared him.

"Is there a problem here?" Thor asked, coming to stand before the two of them.

"Problem?  Not exactly, or none that mr scraggly here will admit to," Rocket said to Thor.

Quill sighed.  "I was getting homesick.  I figured a walk through the woods would help."

"You ain't been to your 'home' since you were little, Quill.  So don't pull that stuff on us."

"True, but you may've noticed I go through woods a lot and go off on my own even more."

"Can't argue lunacy," Rocket said.  "Now about that drink."

"I never said I wanted a drink," Quill said.

"Water, then?" Thor asked.

"The human'll have water, weak as he is," Rocket said. "Got any stronger drinks for me?"

"What?" Quill asked Thor.

"Apologies," Thor said, "your face somewhat reminds me of an old friend of mine."

While the menfolk were doing that, at a nearby-ish table Jane asked Sif, "How did your meeting go? Got the memorial all planned?"

"Nearly done," Sif said, sitting across from Jane.

 _Okay, I realize Asgardians don't go for the whole 'rip your clothes off' cliche, but shouldn't there be_ some _emotion there?_ "Thor mentioned somebody'd be helping you. Anyone I know?"

"Yes. Loki. When he was not out supervising the last group of Midgardians Thor brought from your world."

_'Team spider' as Stark calls them. Darcy's got another name for 'em._

"Though, as Fandral will be taking over the position tomorrow, Loki will be able to focus on the task in hand."

"Maybe you're the reason he can't focus," Jane teased. _Oh my god, I'm become those girls from college!_

Sif looked at Jane. "My siblings and sib, my kith and kin, they all know better than to suggest such a thing. The time of my 'distracting' Loki, or of Loki 'distracting' me, is long since past."

"You don't think he's cute?"

"Oh yes, Jane, I find Loki's mask adorable," Sif said.

_Touche._

"One may as well speculate upon Angrboda's appearance." _Even I cannot fault Angrboda's taste in dresses._ "Were I not so busy, I might ask her if she has a spare dress I might borrow, if there was an event I could wear it to."

 _Hmmm... The King can order a ball, right? I wonder if I could talk Heimdall into calling for a gala. And speaking of Angrboda..._ "You're right, Sif. Loki's destined to marry Angrboda, so the most you and I can do is get them together." _I can't believe I'm trying to make this some bad romance novel. Would Sif really get jealous if she sees Loki with another? Or maybe her feelings get reignited while playing matchmaker? Yeah, I'm doubting it._

Sif was quiet and still, then asked, "Who is your source?"

 _Or maybe I'm wrong._ "Snorri Sturlson. And a Volvoda."

And while the two of them were discussing that, Tony and Pepper were sharing a nice, quiet drink at a table on their own.

"Can't fault the design," Tony said, all his fingers twined with Pepper's.  "A drinking glass made for two.  With straws.  Whoever invented these, would've made a killing on Earth."

At another table, Darcy chuckled.

"Can't say it enough - I'm glad you're okay," Tony said to Pepper.

Pepper smiled at him.  "Tony, the only thing I did during Ragnarok, was chat with the lord of a Realm, and negotiate for the release of the Guardians Of The Galaxy," _two of whom are presently arguing with Thor._ "Lord Aegir wasn't even particularly dangerous.  You, on the other hand, you talked with a dragon, and then with fire kings."

"Surt and Sutur - and that's what I've been meaning to talk to you about, Pepp.  Need to apologize."

"Tony?" Pepper asked. _Let's see, what does Tony Stark apologize for?  'Ominous things' covers a lot of it._

"I had to promise to make more suits," Tony said.  "Turns out, most stuff in the Realms either is regular metalwork, or godlike AIs, with few things in between.  That makes JARVIS and the suits unique...and yes, JARVIS agreed at the time - he gets one suit for himself, and Surt gets the others."

"And you get?" Pepper asked.

"I told you I was done with them.  I meant it."  _And yeah, I know that I made one anyway - and brought it with us as we started fighting in Ragnarok and coming out here; can't and won't say I was getting ready to establish my bona fides to an alien godthing I hadn't even heard of at the time, even if that's what the suit turned out to be used for.  
_

Pepper looked into the depths of his eyes.  _Was it a mistake?  Should I not have asked him to stop making suits?_ "You're always getting better with promises, Tony," Pepper said, and it was true.

Catching their attention was something off to one side getting shouted at Thor:"Let him go!  Or he'll bite you!"

Thor looked down at Rocket and asked "Why would you say such a thing?"

"Because that's what humans do," Rocket said.

"Humans don't bite," Jane said.

"Much," Tony added.

"The resembling is uncanny," Thor said, holding Quill by the chin and turning his head this way and that.  "Volstagg, does he not look like he could be the son of -"

"He does," Volstagg said.

"Look, guys," Quill said, "I'm not -"

The tavern doors opened at that moment, and in stepped Fandral. "My friends. A word?" he asked them all.

"What is it, Fandral?" Thor asked.

"Our King requests our presence - _all_ of us," Fandral said.

"All all, or _all_ all, or some all?" Darcy asked.

"The mortals, Sif and her party, and that's all for now."

"Wait, what about Thor?" Jane asked.

Sif said, "We speak of parties - teams and squads are the same sense."

"Oh, like raiding parties," Darcy said.  _Who'd-a thunk it, History Channel got something right_.

"Yes, perfectly," Sif said before Jane facepalmed.  She sighed.  "I suppose we are to formally meet the future Queen Lorelei," resigned to it.

"We have that sliver of good news," Fandral said.

"What??"

Fandral corrected himself:  "The good news is that I don't believe she's to be our queen."

"We should be so fortunate," Sif said.  "Though what makes you say so?"

"The reason we are all summoned," Fandral said.

"Which is?" Darcy asked.

"I was commanded to silence in that matter."

Everyone came - Sif and Jane and Darcy and Pepper, Tony and Thor and Volstagg and Quill and Rocket - and walked together to the Palace.

As they walked, "What happened between you and Lorelei?" Pepper asked. "If it's something you can talk about."

"I failed her," Sif said.  "She asked for my help, and I did not give it."

"I can't picture that," Jane said. "You always help people who ask for help."

"I do now, and I did then. But I did not provide help at that critical time."

Having a funny feeling it was more than 'needed help with homework' _which, granted, ended one of my questionable friendships_ , Pepper said, "I'm sure she understands you were busy."

A bitter laugh.  "I was," Sif agreed.  "I was tasked with capturing her and ending the civil war."

"There was a civil war?  Here?" Jane asked.  _Not that this is a measuring contest or anything, I mean I never did anything worse than treason.  And running over a god - does that qualify as heresy?_

"On Aseheim, where the daughters of Nerthus had resided before and since the arrest of their mother.  Lorelei's native hosts were part of the move to unseat their monarchs, and she gave them her support."

"Asgard doesn't like dynastic change?" Jane asked.  _That'd put a spin on why people looked wary of me last time.  Besides the fact I had a Dark Elf superweapon in my veins._

Sif snorted.  _Starting to wonder when Thor is going to explain his family to her._   "Asgard does not like Asgardians providing unfair advantage - which, yes, Lorelei possesses, as your world itself learned, briefly."

"It was personal," Pepper deduced.  "She had a reason why she asked for your help.  The same reason why you were picked to bring her in?"

"Yes," Sif nodded.  "I had trained her.  Lorelei was my apprentice.  There were bonds of obligation... and I... I had sworn to serve Asgard.  So when the Allfather asked me to go to Aseheim..."

"You went," Pepper said.  _'Following orders' isn't an accepted defense anymore, but it's still true._

"I went," Sif repeated.  "I asked those close with me to come with me.  Sigyn agreed, as did Thor, if a mite hesitant, as was Loki - which was different."

"Different?"

"I was loyal to them both, as they were princes.  But with Loki, there were reciprocated feelings."

"And that's why you and Loki aren't together anymore," Jane said; "because he didn't jump into battle alongside you?"

"Worse," Sif said.

"Worse?" Jane and Darcy asked, and Pepper mouthed.

Sif said, "Loki was not certain we should obey that task his father set me."

Darcy guessed that, "Aand Loki said that if you did what Odin told you to do, he was going to leave you?"

"Loki vowed to comply with whatever I decided," Sif said.

"Lemmee see if I've got this right," Darcy said.  "Your boyfriend said he'd back your play, whatever you decided."

"Yes," Sif said.

"And that was a problem?"

"He made you choose," Pepper said.

Sif nodded.

Darcy said to Pepper, "When people lament 'bout that, it's 'cause it's 'choose between the one you love and what you love to do.'   She just said Loki didn't give her that ultimatum."

"He also didn't take it out of her hands," Pepper said.

"Uh, _not_ seeing the downside."

"Which is worse - disobedience or betrayal?"

"Well, according to my grandparents, they're the same thing," Darcy said.

Sif said, "My heart is and was under my own command, answering only to me. My feet and my sword and my shield are and were under the command of Asgard."

"...Which includes Loki," _which means he could've been within his rights to order you to go with him, but your lovelife is your call. Nice, if that's your thing._

"Yes. With Loki's protection," Sif said, "I would have been insulated against any political reparcusions, were that my wish or concern.   But many would no longer trust me or that I am as good as my word.  **_I_** would no longer have trusted myself.  To me, _that_ is more reason than Loki's failure."

"Failure?  Having the guts to stand by your side, come what may..."

"And yet, possessing all those guts, and the authority of a royal prince, he made _me_ decide what he and I would do, which side we would fight against."

"Have you spoken to Lorelei since...all that?" Jane asked.

"I have.  We spoke of Haldorr."

"Who?"

Sif was silent, examining her hands.  "Someone she believes to be dead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Smin_ I believe was an ancient god of disease or rodents or something; its been a while since I read that history book.


	4. Marching through Asgard, gardens, and catacomb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"What is it, Riddick?" What is it now?"_  
>  _"Like I said, it ain't me you gotta worry about."_  
>  \--Caroline Fry, Richard Riddick; Pitch Black.

As the group of them walked to the palace, "I think I understand how things work around here," Steve said to Sif. "Or at least how they used to. Can I run some of it by you?"

"I will run over any parts that are wrong," Sif said. "Go ahead."

 _If SHIELD hadn't been dismantled, I'd want to have words with whomever taught her our idioms._ "You served Thor and Loki, and the three of you served Odin and Frigga - the rulers of your world."

"Of my world and of the wider Realm," Sif confirmed.

"And you and Fandral were on the same team - party.  But back there, he looked to you when he delivered the good news and the bad news, not to Thor," Steve said.  "So I'm going to guess you outrank Fandral."

"Did and do.  There was a time when that was _not_ so, between now and back then."

"Nothing stays the same," Steve said from plenty of experience on that score.

"True.  Though some change little.  But that is not why we Asgardians revere our monarchs."  A thought occured to her: "What have you been hearing when we say that word?" Sif asked.

"Monarchs?"

"It fits," Sif said.  "As would _gods_."

"You guys aren't gods," Steve said.

"What we are to you and your ancestors, our royals are to us."

"Myth and legend?"

"And walking amongst us," Sif said. _And sometimes we don't know what we have next to us, however we feel at the time._ And that gave her an idea.  "You've never asked how I entered service as a woman."

"None of my business," Steve said.

"Thor has explained guises to you, yes?"

"Thor, Fandral, Volstagg, yeah."

"Mine was Haldorr," Sif said.  _Amora helped me create the image of him; on my own, it would have been a far shoddier outcome._   "He was my feet in the window, as you say."

"Foot in the door," Steve said.

_And either way, you would have a foot stuck - be it in a door or in a window._

And Sif managed to summon a hologram's thickness of a guise around herself, showing Haldorr once again...right down to the fatal wound which had been why Sif had retired her only guise.  Feeling the pain from even that thin guise and what Lorelei had done to it, Sif knew that this - and four centuries ago - Haldorr had looked scarred and weathered, rougher than when she first used him in her youth - _it was a rough fit when I was Haldorr on Aseheim, and that stretching showed in how he looked as though he had been busy on many fields of battle between then and then._

And she flicked Haldorr back to within herself, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

"You okay?" Steve asked.

Sif nodded.

"SIF!" Jane shouted, running at her, her facial expression clearly saying she had a brilliant idea.

"Good thing," Steve said with a grin.

**Less than a minute ago:  nearby:**

"Dropped?" Angrboda repeated.

"That's right," Jane said.  "They were in a relationship, and his arm fell off - that's an emotional response, right?  Or is it just a fear reaction, like in lizards?"

"Emotional," and muttered something long and low, almost a moan to Jane's ears: "You say it so mildly," Angrboda translated.  "Rare among rare, it's only known to happen in extreme passion."

"Wow.  So, when you're in the throes of passion...?"   _aaand now I'm channeling Darcy.  Of all the times._

"Highly rare," she reiterated to Jane.  "Our last documented case was... Nal, the last High Queen of Utgard and Jotunheim."

"And after that?" Jane asked.

"The jotunthinga complied with her final request, and did not appoint a successor."  She sighed.  "When the jotunthinga gathered on her death, Bor finished the Dark Elves without us."

 _What can I say to that?  Hold the phone..._   "Passion?  Extreme passion?"

"I said that," Angrboda said.   "Why do y-"

"Not a lukewarm love, or a perfunctory loving, or anything like that."

"None of that," she agreed.  "Wh-" when Jane grabbed her hand and pulled her along and began to run.

Jane could feel a slight tug and crawl over both sides of her hand.  Having never shaken hands with or held hands with a Frost Giant, she figured it was normal.  And that bit was all she spared it, as she had more pressing concerns on your mind.  "Sif!" running up to where Sif was chatting with Captain Rogers.  "Hi, um, 'scuse us.  Sif, I know what to do!"

Sif looked at Jane.  Then at Angrboda.  Then at the pair of them.  "Thor will get over it.  I wish you both happiness."

Jane blinked.

Steve said, "I'd ask to be caught up, but I get the feeling this is a private conversation," and walked to elsewhere in the group.

"Was she -" Jane started to ask Steve, then asked Sif herself, "Were you just now...?"

"I was," Sif said.

"What?" Angrboda asked.

"You didn't see that?" Jane asked.

"I saw Sif talking with the man who just left."

"She was - Sif was...how?"

"Magic," Sif said.

"Ah," Angrboda said.  "I cannot see magic."

"Because you're a Frost Giant?" Jane asked.

Sif thought, That _wouldn't make sense - Loki's illusions worked fine against them in Jotunheim._

"Because I have a problem with my eyes," Angrboda said.

Before the mortal can dig into any further trouble, "Jane?" Sif asks, looking at the mortal's hand.

"Hm?" Jane asked, then looked at the ice retracting from around her hand, going back into Angrboda's knuckles and back of her hand.

"No burns," Sif said, sounding - to Jane - slightly weirded out.

"Gripping, not weaponry," Angrboda said.  "Sample bias explains your disorientation."

While nodding, Sif corrected her: "Surprise."

"Of course."

"And what realization did you have, Jane?" Sif asked.

"Angrboda says it's a sign of boundless love and passion - what happened when you and Loki were together."

Her voice grew stone-hard and her eyes were sharp as spearpoints, staring at the mortal and the jotunn.  "You _\- told - her_ ?"

"No.  I mean, kind of.  I didn't name names, just an overview of what happened," Jane said.

Angrboda looked at Sif's arms, and said "You've regenerated superbly."

Somewhat mollified by this, Sif said, "It wasn't my arm."

"I'm sorry if I overstepped any boundaries," Jane said, _not that overstepping is anything new for me_.  "But this is a good thing.  Right?"

Her voice back to normal, Sif said, "It paints that moment in better hues than I had before, but it does not change what is now."

"Why not?"

"We have been over this.  I have explained the events and my reasons.  I will not reiterate them, even for the ears of one who brightened a moment of memory."

Angrboda nodded.  "I understand."

Jane groaned.

"No doubt the arm takes after you in hobbies," Angrboda said to Sif.

"It is still an arm only," Sif said.  "I did not let a drop of my blood fall upon it - first in fear, then in leaving it be."

 _Blood?_ "Could I see it?" Jane asked, getting an idea.

"Why would you wish to see it?" Sif asked.

"Well, with my relationship with Thor...I want to be prepared for all eventualities - maybe I'll be like whomever was with Queen Nal, which means I'd be like you, Lady Sif."

"It's an arm," Sif said, who thought a moment, then sighed.  "Very well.  After our new king regales us with whatever he is going to say, I will take you to the Infancy Catacombs."

Jane was going to ask about that, but that was when they finally arrived at the outer doors of the palace.

* * *

Within the palace, all looked as it always had.

Within the throne room, all the damage of the Dark Elf incursion had been repaired. What little upheaval had taken place during Ragnarok, was nearly complete in itself being fixed.

Thor saw that Heimdall sat upon the throne, _where I never sat, even when I was king of Asgard_.  To one side, Thor and the others saw that Lorelei stood alongside Frigga and Tyr - and alongside Sigyn, come down from her library after so long.

There were no banners undraped, no emblems in sight, no sigils impressed into stone or fabric.  For all that he was unopposed, Heimdall was still new in his kingship.

"You sent for us, our king?" Sif asked.

"I have," Heimdall said.  "Lorelei will accompany yourself and a party to Aseheim.  Once there, you will release Amora and accompany her back to Asgard."

"Very well.  And does the king suggest who shall be in this party?"

"You know the terms of contractual containments, sister."

Sif bristled, but answered: "There must be a match between the party who locked them away, and the party who unlocks them - either in kinship or in kithship."  Recalling that day, "Hildebrid died in Ragnarok, and Gerroda during the Dark Elf invasion; we need thurses - shall we ask of the museum employees which of them would care to accompany us?"

"Adventure time!" Jess said, recognizing the word.

"Really?" Tony asked.

"What?"

"That's a tv show."

"Well ex-cuse me.  My encyclopedic braininess only goes up to the Thirties.   I'm going on this trip."

"I'll go," Peter Parker said.

"Peter Quill, of Midgard and the Barren Lands," Heimdall said.  "you shall accompany them."

"Cool," Quill said.  "Uh, why me?"

 _'The Barren Lands'?  Him?  I would not have thought so._ "Him?  Truly?" Sif asked.

"I was right?" Thor asked.  _I was fine thinking I was mistaken.  We all miss him - understandable to think we see his heir in newcomers._

To Quill, Heimdall said only, "Your father was known to us, and known to Asaheim."

"Good to know," Quill said. "But that doesn't tell me how you - any of you - knew my dad."

"If I understand," Fandral said nearby, "he was a good friend of ours, always having our backs as we always had his."

"So why'd he die on Earth?"

Sif was ready to answer that - _I can not speak to Loki of many things, but I can at least answer this boy's questions about my other dear friend._ But before she could say a word -

A little girl's voice shouted, "Can I go?  Can I go?  Can I go?" as she ran through the crowd, and barreled into Fandral without knocking him over.  "Can I go?" she asked him.  "Please?"

Jane recognized her as the little girl who had helped her with the toy's workings.  _I'd thought the toys and the daughter were Volstagg's.  I guess it was just the toys that were his.  Why didn't I think Fandral had kids?_

Fandral looked at Sif, who nodded.  "You may, provided your work is done," Fandral said.

Said the little girl, "It is.  All done, neat and tidy.  And now I get to go on an adventure before my next decade of classes."

 _Note to self,_ Tony mused, _don't ever try to hack it as an Asgardian._

"Yay! I'm Anngrid," Fandral's daughter said to the group, all bubbling energy beneath her bouncing dark locks of raven tresses. "This is going to be so cold, I get to go afield with thurses and midgardins. I know how to talk like you too, it's all aleph-okay," she said.

"Close enough," Darcy said. "I'm Darcy."

"Are you the one who nearly killed Thor?"

"Nope."

"A pity.  Had you done so, perhaps you would have his heart?" Anngrid asked.

 _Please don't tell me that Thor has a type, and it's people who nearly kill him._ "Aren't you a little young to be thinking about stuff like that?"  _And pllllease don't say you're fifty or three hundred._

"No.  Matchmaking is a child's profession."

_I have no words._

Offering a change in what seemed to be discomforting the mortals, Lorelei said, "If I may, my king?"

"Proceed," Heimdall said.

Lorelei stepped up to where Jane Foster stood, and smiled at her.  "Doctor Jane Foster, born of Midgard, accomplished scholar.  On your return, I would like for you to accept becoming my replacement."

"Your - what?" Jane asked.

"I have been - and no doubt our king wished to surprise us all with the news - I have been given the task of being Officer of Ritual.  Upon your return, I would ask that you be the Officer Of Ritual for the kingdom.

"Should she accept," Sif said, her voice stunned, nearly numb at the offer, "she would serve the new king, with her primary duty being determining what is to be spread and what is deemed heresy."

 _Just so I understand this..._ "My relationship with Thor, that's not an obstacle?" Jane asked.

"Is Thor your master to be obeyed in all things?" Lorelei asked.  _See, I was paying attention when I was on Midgard - just watch._

"Of course not."

"Then there is no obstacle."

"Though i'm not the best at figuring out what's heresy," Jane said.  "Or if its a bad thing."

"Would you try, or would you flee?" Heimdall asked.

"I'd try.  I always try first," Jane said.

"That is all that can be asked for." To the others, "I do not doubt you have questions," Heimdall said.

"What can we expect when we get there?" Steve asked.

"There are no pockets of violence on Aseheim," Heimdall said. "Though their relationship with the megafauna may leave you at risk of the wildlife."

"If you can call it wild," Thor muttered.

"And the place we're heading to, how will we know when we've reached it?" Tony asked.

"Amora was not punished beyond what you would call 'house arrest' for her lending support to her sister during the civil war," Frigga said. "In the centuries since, the natives there have steadily expanded her home," and waved her hand, conjuring a hologram of the place.

Tony whistled. "And the scale is...got it. That's not even a manor," he said. "I've been in palaces smaller than this place."

"Just so I understand this right," Darcy said.  "You want us to go to a far-away land to rescue a princess from a castle, and bring her back here for the wedding.  Are you deliberately cribbing from _Shrek_?"

"Proposal.  Not an immediate wedding," Heimdall said.

"And if she says no?"

"Regardless of her answer, Amora will not be returned to captivity."  Heimdall stood and said, "The remainder of you, who have been housed in Asgard since the time of Ragnarok, are welcome to return and resume their residency in Asgard upon your return from Aseheim.  Details to that end, shall await your return."

"May I confer with you a while, Doctor Jane Foster?" Lorelei asked.

"Okay," Jane said, and her elbow was hooked by Lorelei's arm, and they were off to the gardens before Jane could have two thoughts.  _No wonder Angrboda iced my hand - talk about being taken by surprise._

As everyone else was beginning to leave the throneroom, Heimdall said, "Loki.  A word.  You alone."

"Loki?" Angrboda asked.

"Go," Loki encouraged.  When everyone but Sif and Jess were gone, he said, "I know not what you wait for. Go." When they had left, "Yes, my king?" Loki said to Heimdall.

"There are those who would question any fealty you would claim to a lord," Heimdall said.

"Or to a king.  Particularly with our history these past few years.  But let us not debate which of us has the greater obedience; and tell me what you wish to tell me."

"I shall.  Though I doubt I need to.  You are well read; and familiar with the traditions surrounding, among other events, regnal marriage."

"I am," Loki confirmed.  "Am I to be the central figure in your proposal to Amora?"

"You are."

"May I ask who made that decision?"

"I did."

"I understand.  Very well, I shall see you upon my return, whence I take my rightful place at the pyre.  It is the best place for me."

"Good.  Fare well, Loki," Heimdall said.  He did not need to turn his head to see where Darcy Lewis was hiding and watching all of that.  _I know you will relay all of that to your friend - I trust this to be sufficient for your purposes, Dr. Foster._

* * *

"Thank you for agreeing to see me," Jane said. _Though I'm not sure how you knew I wanted to see you - happy coincidence?_

"Gladly," Lorelei said. "I have been meaning to confer with you for a long while, actually.  Shall we sit or walk?"

"I think better on my feet."

"As do I. This way," leading through the garden. "I confess a certain curiosity, you being the talk of the town."

"Sif mentioned arresting you, but she never said when that was. Could you...?"

"There was recently, shortly before Ragnarok fell across the Realms," Lorelei said. "Before then... Four centuries," she supplied.

"Four... And you've been angry with Sif ever since?" Jane asked.

"Betrayed? Slightly. Hurt? Very. But angry? Only initially. I will not deny using it as a weapon during our recent confrontation."

"Is there an Asgardian version of 'let bygones be bygones' and being friends again? Because if there isn't, I may be in deeper shit than I thought," Jane said.

Lorelei considered that as she watched eveningbees drawn to a glowing blossom. "Many would argue that, with Ragnarok over, there is no point to reconciliation."

"Oh." _Damn_.

"It was the view espoused by Vili, Odin's sister and predecessor, a view that the Allfather never replaced."

"Huh."

"I do not subscribe to it," Lorelei clarified.  _And as Officer Of Ritual, you can replace it._

Jane almost breathed a sigh of relief, keeping it inside. "Oh?"

"Yes. Rather, I don't regard what you fought, to be Ragnarok." Explaining, "In my family, we hold the opinion that one day, yet to come, Buri will return."

"And usher in a new age of peace?" Jane guessed.

 _Peace?_ "And threaten the Realms. All Asgardians will have to choose their fate - to continue as we are, or return to what we were - and war against Buri accordingly."

"Were?"

"I would welcome peace with Sif," Lorelei said. "But I harbor doubts she would accept it."

"If I arrange a meeting, would you be there?" Jane asked.

"Yes. Though I advise you not to involve men in this."

"Why would I? This' between you and her." _Right?_

"Nigh all Asgardians have what your race call 'superpowers.' Mine is to command men."

Jane snorted. "Any idiot can command men."

"I never said it was useless," Lorelei agreed. "Grant you that it did not work on every man - Haldorr, for one, likely as he was Hod's."

"Haldorr was?"

"The assassin hand of Frigga, did call Haldorr his son."

"Assassin?"

"I suspect it is safe to infer none told you Frigga was Odin's Officer Of Ritual," Lorelei said.

"You suspect right," Jane said.

Down past the flowerbark trees and the redbottle leaves, around the dauberbulbs and - "Why?" Lorelei asked abruptly.

"Why what?" Jane asked.

Lorelei looked at her.

"Oh, why'm I helping you?  Because I don't have any reason not to."

"I could provide you with one, if it would help."

"Um, yeah, thanks but no thanks," Jane said.

Lorelei shrugged.  "What were you engaging in before the affairs of Asgard came to your world?"

"I was an astrophysicist.  Still am.  That's -

"You study the bits and shards of this cosmos and how they fit together into forming its myriad forms."

"That's exactly right."   _But what do you mean_ **'this'** _universe?_   "Are you an astrophysicist too?" Jane asked.

"I was a botanist," Lorelei said.  "Were it not for a desire to have even a sip of revenge, I could have disappeared on your world with ease."

"I don't doubt it," Jane said.  "And is Amora a botanist too?"

"No, she and Sigyn were eke-named 'The Strange Twins.'  My sister Amora studied psychology and history."

 _Eke-name...nick-name_.  "So did most of my family.  I don't see how that's strange."

"Much appreciated.  But in most mortals' civilizations, they say a Golden Age was in their past, a perfect time, to where all is compared and found wanting.  The civilization of the Three Elder Races and Asgardians," Lorelei said, "is and has always been geared toward preparing for a future moment."

"Raganarok."

Lorelei nodded.

 _Speaking of..._ "Have you ever heard of someone called 'Baldur'?" Jane asked.

"I believe so. Son of Frigga and Odin," Lorelei said.

"Where's he live?"

"In the Nursery Catacombs."

 _Sif mentioned that place._ "He's dead?"

"No," Lorelei said.

"Then...'catacombs'?" Jane asked.

"We are not humans. We Asgardians need a place for our children who have not yet finished being born."

"You...lay eggs?" _Maybe I shouldn't have bought Thor that DVD case of Mork & Mindy._

 _"_ No," Lorelei said.  "Sometimes the blood of the father mingles with the blood of the mother within the body, and sometimes they mingle outside the body."

 _Oh god this puts their love of battlefields in a whole new light.  Please be wrong pleasebewrongpleasebewrong..._ "So if you get a paper cut..."

"Mingling normal blood from both persons, does nothing but bind an oath," Lorelei said.  "At least one of them has to be contributing generative blood, rather than un-added-to circulatory blood."

"So the paper cut does no good?" Jane asked.

She shrugged.  "If its blood lands in the blood from another paper cut, no good, yes.  So I have no idea if it would work externally with you and Thor."

 _Aand that's where you thought I was going with this.  Okay.  Understandable.  Kinda flattering...I think._   "If we can have a kid, that'd be great.  If not, that's fine," Jane said.  "So, nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww-oh-my-god, look at that," when Lorelei tilted Jane's chin skywards.  The imperial dance of stars in a lattice curling around something unseen...   "I've been here twice, and I've never seen..."

"It is not always visible, even from this height in the Realms," Lorelei said.  "When I was a little girl, coming here was my favorite part of visits to our cousins in Asgard."

 _Right, the part about descending from Buri but not from Bor._   "Thank you for thinking I'd like it.  I love it," Jane said.

"I never stopped feeling that way about those stars."

* * *

Darcy ran through Asgard until she reached the little pagoda she knew Jane and Thor met in from time to time.  "Oh good, you're here.  No Jane, but that's okay, because it's not like Lorelei would do anything to her - at least not at this stage of things, right?  Please tell me I'm right, okay?  Thor?" Darcy blurted out.

"Jane is safe, friend Darcy," Thor said, resting one hand on Darcy's arm.  "I have no doubt you have news - otherwise you would be trailing Jane, as I myself am tempted to do."

Nodding, "Okay, I was going to tell Jane, but I'll tell you, and I'll tell Jane if you're still here when she gets here," Darcy said, and relayed what she had seen of Heimdall's conversation with Loki.

"That is a relief," Thor said.

"Say what now?"

"That he is entrusting an important task such as that, to Loki."

Narrowing her eyes at him, Darcy asked, "What's the job of 'the central figure' in a royal wedding?"

"The offering," Thor said.  "For a wedding, a birth, any event of great importance.  Someone of great prominence offers themself up, and their sacrifice empowers the event."

"Human sacrifice?" Darcy said.   "That's -"

"Un human," Thor said.  "We are Asgardian."

"Yeah, can't argue that.  So you're fine with Loki dying?"

"If he is to die, I have no doubt he will die as well as he already has done."

"Fine, can't argue that either.

"Perhaps we differ on our understanding of sacrifice," Thor suggested.

"Offing up a person or an animal to a god, in the hopes of being blessed in return," Darcy said.

Thor said, "When Bor was enthroned, it was the very day that Buri conquered death by becoming Galactus.  When my brother of Midgard was born, the Triassic began on your world.  When Odin wed Frigga, Hod sheathed his blades."  Thor hung his head as he steeled himself to admit this next one: "When my sister was banished, and ever since then, all records of my deeds becomes water flowing off a back."

"Records become water?" Darcy asked.

"It is normal for one's accomplishments to be inscribed upon one's own skin."

"Soo, if you get a tattoo..."

"It will not stay even an hour," Thor said.  "Sacrifice is a permanent change to one's self or to that which is most precious to the sacrificer."

 _And what's most precious to Loki?_ "I know people who would kill for something like that, buddy," Darcy said.  Seriously again, "We need to find some way to get Loki to talk to Sif.  Romantic, candlelight talking.  Endgame goal, anyway."

"Aye.  And I have been wracking my mind for what could motivate Loki to that endpoint.  I believe Sigyn to be our only hope, thus I have asked her to weigh in."

 _Sigyn's gonna argue Loki go off into the sunset with Sif?  Yep, another time to hope ol' Snorri was ass-backwards on who's doing who_.

* * *

"What brings you to my offices, Loki?  Not that I'm ungrateful for the visit," Sigyn said.

Loki looked around the library, at all the shelves that Sigyn and Darcy must have worked hard on for those labors during Ragnarok.  "I seek shelter for the hours before I venture out as my king commands."

"In other words, you are hiding."

"That is what I said," Loki said.

"Will you have a drink with me?" Sigyn asked.  "In memory of those we lost?"

"You lost more than I did, Lady."

"Nothing I lost, required a veil afterwards - unlike you."

Loki touched his mask.  "What was beneath here, is twice gone."  _Once when Odin's magics collapsed, for all that he is not yet dead.  And then a second time when I handed my own self-image to Sutur._   "The Realm-lord Sutur asked for all that I cover with."

"All your illusions, or only the commonly-used ones?" Sigyn asked.

"Commonly-used and not-quite-commonly."

"Then you no longer have Lady Logi?"

"I do.  But I would prefer not to use that guise overmuch."

"Lest Sutur take her away as well?" Sigyn asked.

Loki nodded.

"Then what of the face beneath your masks?" Sigyn asked.

"No."

"You forget, Loki, I've seen it.  Recall when I was fevered and ill-eyed?"

"I do," Loki said.   _Then, I had dismissed your private statements to me, as hallucinations_.  "And what would you have me do now?"

"You and Haldorr always made such a wonderful pair, fighting and discussing and catarwalling," _and I'd pronounce it better if either of you had been able to carry a tune_.

"Haldorr is dead," Loki said.

"He is; and Sif remains.  Loki is dead; and who remains?"

Silence for a moment, then Loki looked up at her.  "You did that on purpose, Lady Sigyn."

 _Yes I did, what's your point?_   "That is no answer."

"No.  It's not an answer," Loki agreed.

* * *

Sif was standing at the entrance of the archways, when Lorelei and Jane arrived.  "Jane Foster.  Lorelei," Sif said in greeting.

Lorelei lowered her head, then her shoulders, then crouched down so one knee touched the ground.  "I ask your forgiveness," Lorelei asked of Sif.

"And I could ask the same of you," Sif said.  "You have mine, mostly, with the remainder qualified."

"Thank you.  And you have mine, nearly all, with a tiny bit naught but taunts."

"Thank you."  To both of them, Sif said, "I had much time to think while I stood here waiting," _and here and there lately_.

"Sorry," Jane said.  "For being late, I mean."

"'Late means there was a date'," Lorelei quoted, and Sif nodded.  "I remember all of my lessons.  They kept me sane in that prison."

"Good," Sif said.  "Good night to you, then, Princess," she said to Lorelei.

"Good journey into night, Teacher," Lorelei answered back.  "Good night, Doctor."

"G'night, friend," Jane said.

When Lorelei was walking away, Sif said, "This way...if you're still wanting to go."

"Sure," Jane said, and followed Sif under the arch and into the dim passages.  _Nothing's totally dark down here,  not with how the plates and tables and brackets and...there's always some sort of light or glow or - okay, I know enough runes to know that says 'Ulfgar' and that says 'Baldur' and that says 'Byjar'.  Some of them look like the jello I vomited up during my post-grad days, others look like hummus._

Sif made her way through the Nursery Catacombs, and did not stop until she reached the pedistool where, after all this time, Loki's arm still sat.  She took a deep breath.

"No rush," Jane said, putting a hand on Sif's shoulder.  "None of us're going anywhere."

"Thank you," Sif said, clapping one hand on Jane's.

Jane looked at it.   "You sure that's Loki's?"

"Yes."

"Nice arm."

"Very," Sif agreed.   To the arm at rest, "I'm sorry, Loki.  I... I was blind, yes," and drew out a dagger.

"Whoa!" Jane said.  " **Please** tell me you're not going to take out your own eye," _or mine, now that I think about it, "_ in some alien apology!"

Lips quirking in a smile, Sif said, "Nothing so literal, Jane," and raised her blade to her own forehead as she took one last step up to the pedistool.

Jane kept pace with her, hand not letting go of Sif's shoulder.

Sif pricked her forehead enough to let tears of blood slide down over her eyelids to where they mingled with her tears, and what resulted, fell to land on the skin of Loki's arm.  She began to take a step back - which turned into a knee-jerk reaction when the arm's skin flickered.

Even marbled as it was, the arm transformed slowly, appendage by appendage, into an infant.

"Going to assume this is normal," Jane said.  _Supposing an arm shed in passion, becomes generative, or its blood does...since that was circulatory blood Sif just shed.  I may need a bottle of wine and one of Eir's textbooks soon._

"I know less of this than you," Sif said.  "This is..."

"A little blue."

"Yes."  Looking at the metamorphosis reshaping before her, before them, Sif said, "Yes.  Blue."

"Like Angrboda," Jane said.  _She told me this was rare, to put it mildly._

"Angrboda.  Laufey.  Those we fought and killed.  Those Phillip Coulson may have known.  And... this one."

Mottling became swirls and stripes.  Skin formed ears and bars and eyes and organs of balance.

"It's a girl."


	5. "I was wrong.  I admit it."

_"It's a girl."_   Those words echo in Sif's ears even as she reaches down and picks up the infant daughter.   The pink swirl across one temple curled and dipped to touch one eyelid.  Blue waves crested, eternally frozen, on her jawline.

"She's pretty," Jane says.

"Yes," Sif says, looking at how the contrasting colors are not so brash as those of Hela's, where each side of the face had its dominating shade with forays into enemy territory.

"Ulla," Jane offers.

"I know of none by that name," Sif says.  "Though I had a kinsman named Ull."

"Ullr?"

"No.  Ull.  He died in my infancy, though my mother spoke often of him."   Raising the child up so her eyes were level with Sif's own, "Are you Ulla?  Shall that be your name?"

A tiny tongue stuck out and she gave a wide-mouthed and silent yawn.

"Ulla, you shall be, then," Sif said.  "Ullastān, for you have lived long among the stones."

Ullastān reached out and wrapped her tiny blue fingers around Sif's nearest finger, using a pink thumb to hold tight.

"Ulla," Sif said to her.

She pulled Sif's finger closer to her face.

Sif leaned in, her face close to Ulla's own.  "I am Sif," she breathed.

"Sif," Ulla said.  "Sif," and her right hand reached around Sif's hand - the same one Ulla's left fingers were gripping a finger of - for a close and secure hug.  "Sif."

 _Aawwwwwwwwww_ , Jane thought proudly, and backed up a little to give them some privacy...but then she stumbled backwards a step, but caught herself before anything fell - Jane, stones, or anything else.

Ulla sucked in a breath, and Sif could feel her Haldorr-guise being yanked away, pulled into Ulla.  _I don't even know enough magic to pull my guise back into me, particularly not without harming Ulla_.

Haldorr wrapped around Ulla like a sheath, blanketing her features with the appearance of full Asgardian infancy.  "You look like me," Sif said.  _Understandable, as Haldorr was meant to look enough like me that he could be a kinsman_.  "Is this what happened to you, Loki?" Sif asked, then dismissed the possibility.  _That would require certain things to be true_.  Turning her head, "Are you well, Jane?" Sif asked her.

"I'm good," Jane said.  "Not about to crash into anything, I swear."

"We should go."

"No, really, I'm okay," Jane said.  "I'll just keep standing perfectly still, no problem."

"I am appreciative of that," Sif said, "but while my daughter's appearance may have outwardsly changed, she still requires clothing upon her.  Thus we must depart from these catacombs."

"Oh.  Okay," and followed Sif back out to the arching entrance of the catacombs.  _And I've no doubt she knows exactly where she's going.  Even if these walls don't look familiar._   "What's next?"

"?" Sif asked.

"Baptism or holding her above a crowd, maybe, or asking the king to bless Ulla?"

Steel-voiced, Sif said, "I would sooner dash the three of us to the rocks, than ask _Heimdall_ to bless anything."

"Now that we've got that established -"

"I stated, Jane Foster; I have no intent to do that action."

"Good to know.  So what comes next in the life of an Asgardian?  After we get her dressed, that is."

"We are nearly there," Sif said.  "After this, we shall go to our beds, and rest.  In the morning, I will entrust my daughter to Gudrun and Volstagg in my absence."

"But you just got her," Jane said, trying not to wonder why the floor felt as dry as before, yet the air was starting to smell damp.

"And for all that, I must obey my king.  Two disobediences in one century is not something to be rewarded.  And orders are orders."  Sif said, "Worry not; you have given me the resolve to do this, Jane Foster.  I shall take Ullastan and, upon our return from Aseheim, raise her as my own."

 _Yes!_   "That's fantastic!  You and Loki are going to be the best parents," Jane said.

"Loki may teach her and train her, but I will be her parent."

"Bu- But you said I..."

"You swayed me that I had given up far too quickly on what I once had," Sif said.  "Loki has moved on; while Ulla, by nature and definition, has not.  I will pick up where she and I left off, and we shall be richer for it."

 _No!_   "That wasn't what I meant...I mean, it was, but I meant for Loki to be part of your family too."

"He has no interest in joining himself to me or my family.  And I have no desire to force or lure him to do so."

"There was an insult in there, wasn't there?" Jane asked.

"Another might have placed offense in there, but I am in no mood to do so, particularly to you, Jane Foster."

"Oh.  Thanks."

Soon enough, they had reached a point where the corridor made a sharp turn leftwards and rearwards.  At the juncture of the two paths, Sif crouched down, Ulla cradled in one hand.  Ahead of her, a wall of plants grew around a pond.

Jane wondered,  _What do the plants down here eat?  Insects?  Bugs and fish in the water?  Visitors?_

Sif touched the ground before them with loving fingers.  "Jarnsaxa is here."

_I know that name, but I'm not going to say a word, because I'm probably wrong.  Hopefully._

_"_ Greetings, mother of mine," Sif said.  "I present a friend of mine, Jane Foster, heart of Thor.  I present also my daughter, your grandchild, Ullastān," and laid Ulla upon the ground where Sif's fingers had touched.  "Do you approve?" Sif asked, and Jane wasn't sure if she was asking that of the baby or of the dead.

Ulla began to coo.

Sif smiled.  "I am glad.  We shall return," as she lifted Ulla from the ground, and stood slowly, respectfully _._

As the three of them made their way to an arch-exit, "I'm sorry about your mom," Jane said.

Sif looked at her, confused.

"It's never easy to lose a parent," Jane clarified.

"My mother is not dead," Sif said.  "She was imprisoned in a subsurface room - this was once a jail, but room was needed for the catacombs.  But, as Lorelei and Amora are being released, it means Jarnsaxa my mother may be released soon as well."  _Or not - she was never Heimdall's favorite mother._

"Your mom sided with Lorelei in the civil war?" Jane asked. 

"Briefly, as her advocating a position regarding Lorelei's mother Nerthus before and during the civil war, brought my mother to heresy.   In her role as Officer Of Ritual, Frigga deemed it harsher for Jarnsaxa to be locked away underground, than for Jarnsaxa to be slain."  Sif sighed.  "Besides, all are needed at Ragnarok."

"But..."

Sif nodded.  "Thor released very few of Asgard's prisoners.  Even though most of them were kept alive for the final battle, and remain alive and locked away."  Sif said, "And yes, Loki too was among them.  When you came and Thor planned to release Loki while some prisoners were escaping - Lorelei among them - I harbored hopes that the final war had arrived."

"Sorry?" Jane asked.

Sif smiled.  "Worry not, Jane.  When we return to our residence, you may sleep whilst I feed Ullastān."

_This isn't over, Sif.   Even if you both decide to move on, I want to be sure you both first recognize that you're still in love with each other._


	6. "Okay.  Hold onto me.  We're gonna get outta here.  I got you."

 "Loki!" Thor called, catching up to where Loki was slowly walking.

 _How is it you always manage to find me after I spend time with Sigyn?  No wonder the mortals have the wrong idea._ "Yes?" Loki asked.

"I have been thinking more than doing, where it comes to the thing I had sworn to fulfill.  I have overthought the matter, much as I always gave you grief regarding," Thor said.

"Normally, I would relish this, Thor, but I am preoccupied right now.  Perhaps another time, or you can put in writing your confession."

"Does this preoccupation of yours have to do with Sif?" Thor asked.

 _Not you too._ "Dare I ask why everyone has suddenly developed a fascination with Sif and myself?" Loki asked.

"For some of us, brother, it is more a matter of a recent willingness to speak of it."

"You speak of the past," Loki said.  "Leave it there.  The rest of us are.  In particular -"

"There is a proverb of Midgard, brother, that quite well encapsulates what you always told to me."

"And what would that be?" Loki asked.

"Get over yourself," Thor said.

Loki looked at him.

"It is the height of Earthly manners to do as you have done," Thor said, not disputing that, "and give full choice to Sif, when you could easily and justly instructed her to join her family."  _How much of her ire towards Heimdall, stems from the two of them being among the rare few of their family who did not side either in word or deed with the Allfather's decree?_

"I have yet to see the problem I must supposedly surmount," Loki said.

"Since then, you have kept aloof from a return to what you and she were to one another."

"The Lady Sif has not demonstrated an interest in doing so."

Thor groaned.   "Neither have you.  Recall how long the two of you danced around one another before either of you admitted your feelings in the first place.  Neither of you care to risk being the first to confess to something."

Loki weighed that, adding it to his calculations for events to come.  "One thing in return, Thor, if I am to do this _before_ the journey to Amora's."

Hearing that emphasis, Thor had no problem with it being moved up.  _As opposed to it never being done_.  "Ask."

"How did you get Mjolnir?" Loki asked.  "Sif and Bill and I, we went to Sminsgard to aid them while you were sick at home.  And when we returned, paeans to us being sung and wrapped in glory, we find _you_ have been awarded the Hammer."

Thor looked at his feet for a long while before answering.  "It was never awarded," Thor said.  "I helped our sister Meili thieve it out of the Armory after we had come to an agreement.  The Allfather did not punish _us_ , but instead abided by what we had decided in advance.  That...is why our sister was not in Asgard to welcome Sif, Bill, or you home."

"I see," Loki said, _and how long have you held even that much close to you?_ And faded away.

_I would not have objected to very nearly any reaction he may have had to that.  Norns know, I deserve it._

* * *

**_MEANWHILE:_ **

_Okay, just to be sure I understand what this lady's offering to hire me for..._ "You want me to get the two of them acting all parental, in the hopes they get kissy-face?" Quill asked.  _I live with Gamora, Groot, Drax, and Rocket the sometimes-psychotic raccoon; what's the worst that Loki and Sif can do to me?_

"Yes, that sums it up," Lorelei said. 

"And if I say no?"

"I already said I would owe you."

"Yeah you did," Quill said.  "Not interested."

"You can do this, and have a princess of Asgard indebted to you.  Or you can do this, because I tell you to do it."

"You can't."

"You have human blood in your veins - I assuredly can.  Ask Sif, if you doubt me."

"Bet on it," Quill said.

"Borr-ing," Rocket said.  "Can we go now?"

"In a minute," Peter Quill says.  To Lorelei, he asks, "You ever actually _meet_ my dad?"

"I did," Lorelei said.

"And...?"

"He was very noble, and never complained - no matter how much the growth of toes hurt him."

"Toes?" Rocket asked.

"His race begin life with a hoof on each limb."

"Sound about right, Quill?" Rocket asked, rubbing the human's head.

"No," Quill said.

Lorelei added, "He was slated to succeed one day to the level of godhood, and if Thor's deed truly occurred, you will succeed him."

"Godhood...what, like you and Thor?"

She smiled.  "Flattering young man.  Though Beta Ray Bill worked and played and fought amongst us for centuries, his godhood is as far beyond Asgardians, as Asgardians are above humans."

"Doesn't stop the sex," _as evidenced by the fact that I exist.  And that is the first and last time I ever want to think of my parents...yeah, done._

Her smile broadened.  "One would hope not."

"What's it said about my dad?" Quill asks.  "Gods have stories, right?"

"They do," Lorelei said, "There is an account given to us in stories, passed down from survivors of that bygone time. Your father's line, began as the brother of the first Groot."

Quill just looked at her.

As did Rocket...who then snickered, and started laughing so hard he fell off Peter's shoulder.

"It's not that funny," Quill said.

"It is!" Rocket chortled. "Go on, say it."

"Say what?"

"You know what. Sayyyyyyyyyyyyyy iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit," as he got a handle on his laughter.

"I am not saying I am Groot."

Rocket's laughing started up all over again.

* * *

**THE NEXT MORNING:**

Everyone had gathered in the broad space in front of the stables - Pepper had said they needed someplace better than the tavern to meet up at - to wish well the team who were heading off to unlock the door behind which was Amora.

"Have fun, kids," Tarantula said.

"You're not going with us?" Peter Parker asked.

"Think I'll explore all the nooks and caverns around here first.  Besides, two spider-teachers might be sufficient."

"Let's hope so," Jessica Drew said.  "Keep yourself safe and out of trouble."

"Ditto," Tarantula said.

"You're...not accompanying us?" little Anngrid asked, coming up behind her.

"I'm not," Tarantula said, crouching down to eye level.  "But that's why I have something for you."

"A _gift_?" Anngrid asked, with the amount of wariness in her voice that some reserve for _poison_.

"A good gift.  This," and undid the tie of her mask.   "Here," Tarantula said, handing Anngrid her mask.  "My first mask."  _I put my old mask on atop my latest mask this morning, for precisely this reason._

"You no longer have need of it?"  _I'm glad you have two masks - it means I'm not depriving you of your only one. 'Cause that would make me evil._

"It's made more for adventures, and I  figure you'll be having more of one than I will."

Annhild stared at the mask, then at the Tarantula and back and the mask.  "Thank you!!!" and put it on and ran to the party before they could leave without her.

"That was kind of you," Fandral said to Tarantula.

"De nada," Tarantula said.  "I don't know what sewing skills are taught up here, but I figured I'd spare her from pricking her fingers as much as I did when I made my first mask - and ended up wearing something that looked like it came off the back of a cereal box."

Fandral nodded, thanked her again, and followed the travelers - _Sif wished to carry her daughter as far as the Bifrost itself, and I promised to hold her infant and let little Ulla watch her mother go off into battle for the first time in Ulla's life._

And Anngrid ran back and, face very close to Tarantula's, asked, "What's your name?  That of your family, your lineage?  Who do you call upon?"

"Corazon," she said.

"I am Anngrid Spider Girl Corazon, daughter of Fandral and Sigyn," Annhild said.

Darcy thought, _Huh.  Aand that crashing sound I hear, is ol' Snorri crashing and burning.  Hope that's all it was._

And that was the last thing the adventurers were witness to before they headed to the Bifrost to begin this adventure.

But when they had almost reached the bridge that reached out to the Bifrost, there was an explosion ahead of them -

No rubble, no shrapnel.

Just Loki standing there where the epicenter of the blast would have been.

"You have an explanation, I trust," Sif said, turning and standing - she had sheltered Ulla with her own body.

"It has been pointed out to me that I am an idiot," Loki said.

"Yes," Sif said, "at times."

"And I warn you, I am about to ask the unconventional of you."

"Continue."

"Our guises were wed to one another, Lord Haldorr and Lady Logi, while we ourselves were not.  I ask if we, you and I, might continue where they left off.  To a degree you deem best."

Jane took a whack at translating that quietly: "He sleeps on the couch for centuries if she says so?"

"Yes," Lorelei and Thor said.

"Loki -" Sif began to answer.

"One moment, Lady Sif," Loki said, drawing a lightning storm above himself, all light and shadow and soundless.  At the most dramatic moment, he raised a hand, and was struck by a bolt of lightning.

His cloak fell to the floor, accompanied by his carved mask.

Loki stood there, garbed in Loki's daily clothes, his skin a deeper blue than Angrboda.

Sif turned away from him.

He nodded, accepting that fate.  _You were right that I should try, Thor, Jane._

"Beanpole," Tony whispered to Pepper.  "Granted, I hope I look like that when I'm his age," still unable to get the image of a Master-aged Doctor out of his mind.

 _Not a shabby fellow,_ Angrboda mused, careful to keep that thought out of the air.

...and Sif turned to Lorelei.  "I ask one thing of you," Sif said.  "Be Ulla's..." and whispered a description in Jane's ear.

"Nanny," Jane said.

"I shall be," Lorelei agreed, _and now I trust I am forgiven, or absolved,_ and Sif handed Ulla to her.

Sif next turned right back to Loki, striding right up to him.  "As for you..."

Some of those gathered, held their breath.  Others climbed atop people or things to get a better view.

"Yes," Sif said, embracing Loki, which he gladly returned in spades.


End file.
